This invention relates generally to self-closing toilet seats and, more particularly, to a self-lowering toilet seat assembly whose self-lowering operation is automatically initiated and does not require any type of manual actuation by the user.
Various types of self-closing or self-lowering toilet seats are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,775,875 to the present inventor is directed to a self-closing toilet lid that employs a water reservoir in the lid and a complex mechanism whose closing operation must be initiated manually by the user. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0010733 to Lambert is directed to a self-lowering toilet seat that relies on the atmosphere for operation and that allows the seat to fall uncontrolled onto the toilet bowl below.
It would be advantageous to provide a self-closing toilet seat assembly which automatically rotates the lid to the vertical tipping position a predetermined time after it has been lifted to the open position by the user. Closing of the lid and the seat, if also lifted, continues past the vertical tipping position at a controlled rate so as not to contact the toilet bowl below with the full force of free fall.
It would also be advantageous to provide a self-closing toilet seat assembly which inhibits automatic closing rotation of the toilet lid for as long as a user is seated on the toilet seat.
In accordance with the illustrated preferred embodiment of the present invention, a self-closing toilet seat assembly includes a longitudinal hinge tube mounted in a cavity on the underside of a toilet lid in coaxial alignment with the hinge flanges thereof. The hinge tube is secured in hinged engagement with both the toilet lid and seat by means of a pair of slow-close hinge dampeners. A self-closing mechanism, contained on a mounting base attached to the bowl of a conventional toilet and to the underside of the hinge tube, is responsive to manual lifting of either the toilet lid itself or of both the toilet lid and the toilet seat to the open or vertical position for initiating closing rotation of the toilet lid and the toilet seat, if also upright, to the vertical tipping point, past which they continue to gravitationally rotate to the closed position, at a rate limited by the slow-close hinge dampeners. The self-closing mechanism is responsive to the weight of a user seated on the toilet seat for inhibiting closing rotation of the toilet lid until the user rises from the toilet seat.